New Concerns About Our Hospital Buildings How Buy Now, Pay Later Schemes Could Fuel Addiction Cold and fog hit the country in the latest New Zealand Herald headline. Video / NZ Herald
There are approximately 100 earthquake-prone hospital buildings across the country, a third of which are so important that they must be put into operation immediately after a catastrophic event.
Hundreds of millions of dollars are poured into some of the worst cases in Taranaki and Nelson.
Plans are already underway to move patients and services from the main building at Hutt Hospital after it was deemed an earthquake risk in May.
But this has proven to be a challenge given the current “large capacity constraints” in society, the public sector, and the private sector.
New Zealand Health Authority Te Whatu Ora has been attached to the building stock and is working on earthquake policy to define a standard national risk assessment process.
There are 31 earthquake-prone hospital buildings in the South Island, 17 in the Lower North Island, 29 in the Midland region, and 21 in the North region.
The building with the lowest known New Building Standard (NBS) rating is where the boiler and workshops are located on the Rātonga-Rua-O-Porirua campus. It was rated at 6 percent.
Anything less than 34 percent of NBS is considered earthquake prone.
Te Watu Ora stressed that low NBS ratings do not necessarily mean an imminent danger to public safety. The authority was confident in its ability to repair or replace buildings when needed.
The list of earthquake-prone buildings has been released to the Herald under the Official Information Act by Te Watu Ora.
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In total, New Zealand has 98 earthquake-prone hospital buildings, and the Heretaunga building at Hutt Hospital had not been added to the list at the time the information was collected.
Health Secretary Andrew Little has reassured people that they will have a hospital in the Hutt Valley after he deemed the main building on the site vulnerable to earthquakes. Photo/Mark Mitchell
There are 210 physical bed places in the Hiritonga complex, which represent a quarter of hospital beds in the area.
Health Secretary Andrew Little dismissed concerns that people would lose their local health services after the decision to vacate the building was made.
“We will have a hospital in the Hut Valley.”
A Te Whatu Ora spokesperson said decisions to move patients out of the building should be taken into account on a case-by-case basis.
“These decisions should take into account the available information and the risks associated with the building under consideration. There are no requirements under the regulations to evacuate earthquake-prone buildings.”
The spokesperson said the authority has been working on an earthquake policy that will define a standard national process for risk assessment, occupancy decisions, and reporting.
The Heretaunga block is classified as of Level III significance, which means it may contain crowds of people.
A quarter of all earthquake-prone hospital buildings share the same level of importance.
Furthermore, a third of all buildings were rated as having the fourth level of importance. Buildings in this category must be operational immediately after an earthquake or other catastrophic event.
They include buildings such as emergency shelters, hospital operating theaters, triage centers, and other critical post-disaster infrastructure.
Monique Fulwer, Director of Infrastructure Delivery at Te Whatu Ora, said redevelopment is either underway or planned for critical hospital buildings that have been declared earthquake-prone in high-risk seismic areas.
The majority of important buildings are located on the fourth level in Taranaki, where there are 10, and in the Nelson Marlborough area, where there are four.
Buildings in Taranaki include the Clinical Services Building, the boiler house, the entrance ward building, the mortuary and offices, and maternity complex B at the Taranaki Base Hospital.
The Heretaunga building at Hutt Hospital, which has been designated an earthquake-prone building. Photo/Mark Mitchell
In 2019, the government announced $300 million to build a new acute hospital building on the campus of Taranaki Base Hospital.
The acute clinical services will be moved to a new, modern and fit-for-purpose building.
At the time, the chief executive of the Taranaki District Health Board, Rosemary Clements, said the new East Wing building would be able to provide emergency medical and surgical care after a major disaster.
“It will introduce modern models of care and improve service delivery, improving patient outcomes and quality of care.”
The formed buildings at Nelson Hospital include the boiler house, bunkers, the intensive care unit, the mortuary and the emergency department.
In the 2022 budget, the government announced $1.3 billion in capital investments in health over the next two years.
Nelson Hospital. Photo / Tracy Neal
This includes seed funding for the redevelopment of Nelson Hospital to allow design and enablement work.
There are more than 1,200 buildings in the health district, Fulwer said, and many were not necessary to provide critical clinical services.
Not all buildings with lower NBS scores mean they are at imminent risk of collapse, she said.
A building’s NBS rating is determined by its weakest part, so even if the problem is localized, it still affects the site’s overall score.
“For example, if a building has heavy roof tiles that are not properly capped, it could cause a very low NBS rating,” she said.
“Repair could either include replacing the roof tiles with lightweight roof tiles or improving the building’s restraint.”
Earthquake-prone regulations specify different time frames for strengthening buildings depending on the earthquake risk.
In high-risk seismic areas, it is 7.5 years, medium risk is 12 years and low risk is 30 years.
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